Plunging 1200 metres into the awe-inspiring Briksdalen Valley, the Briksdal Glacier is an arm of the huge Jostedalsbreen Glacier and is another of Norway’s most visited attractions. Every day, during the summer season, hundreds of cruise ship passengers call at nearby Olden and board coaches to take them the short distance to Briksdal Glacier.

Melkevoll Bretun Camping

Melkevoll Bretun camping is a short walk to the visitor centre at the Briksdal Glacier, which is where the 45 minute walk to the glacier starts, and we decided to spend a few days there on our motorhome tour of Norway.

Melkovoll Bretun is in an awe inspiring location. We can see the gigantic waterfall Volefossen from our motorhome, thundering 355 metres down the mountain, and as soon as we arrived it was clear that we had arrived at a special place. The beauty of the surrounding landscape is a million miles away from the frantic day to day life and commuting that we still had this time last year . There is no pollution here, just fresh crisp mountain air that fills your lungs. All I can hear as I type this blog is the sound of water from the nearby river that a few minutes ago was at the top of the nearby mountain. Our motorhome is parked up and all around us we can see snow capped mountains; this campsite must surely be in one of the best locations you could wish for.

I made a short video about Molkevoll Bretun camping, below.

The Briksdal Glacier

It was a warm and sunny day with clear blue sky when we arrived at Melkevoll Bretun so after plugging in our motorhome electricity cable we set off walking in the direction of the glacier.

The Briksdal Glacier and the camping at Melkevoll Bretun make an excellent combination as part of a motorhome tour of Norway.

Most of the cruise tourists were taking the troll carts (motorised buggies) to the glacier but we decided to save ourselves £22 each by walking to the glacier, which is about a mile and takes about 45 minutes. At the Briksdal Glacier visitor centre it said the walk was a gentle incline but I would describe the walk as being a bit of a tiring slog up a steep hill!

The walk up to the Briksdal Glacier takes you past amazing scenery such as this huge waterfall,

The walk up though proved to be the best option because you get to stop to look at spectacular waterfalls and mountain scenery. When you reach the glacier there is a glacial lake and we drank the water from the lake because it looked so crystal clear and fresh. So far no ill effects!

Walk up to the Briksdal Glacier takes you over this bridge.

The Briksdal Glacier in Norway has shrunk considerably over the last few years due to global warming.

On the walk down the very warm weather had made me thirsty and I said to Anne that I fancied a beer. So far on our motorhome tour of Norway we have had only one beer. Knowing that beer is very expensive in Norway, and even more so at popular tourist spots, I was still determined to have a beer to quench my thirst. So, at the Briksdal Glacier visitor centre I bought 2 x half litre cans of beer at a staggering cost of 180 Norwegian Krone, the equivalent of £8.30 a can!

The area of Briksdal Glacier is fantastic. It’s an easy drive from the town of Olden to get to Briksdal and I would recommend a visit when doing a motorhome tour of Norway.

Coincidences

What are the chances that we would meet the friendly German couple, Monika and Michael again. Originally we met them in February at the top of El Torcal National Park in Spain, 3500 km away. (Blog post here ) Well, that’s exactly what happened! We were down to our last two bottles of wine but thought the occasion warranted a celebratory bottle to share the evening with them .We spent a very happy few hours talking about motorhome touring and travel plans. We couldn’t quite believe the cooincidence of us meeting up again. When we finished talking at 00.30hrs it was still light and the nearby mountains and waterfalls looked beautiful.

Meeting up with Monika and Michael from Germany again at Melkevoll Bretun.